"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." - Dwight D Eisenhower
When you look at leaders like Obama, Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, they all have one common thing. They are all the followers of the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. These personalities excelled as leaders as they were good followers. Therefore, you need to a follower first to excel as a leader. However, people interpret being a follower is a sign of weakness. On the contrary, it is a symbol of strength.
Plato was the follower of Socrates. Aristotle was the follower of Plato. Alexander the Great was the follower of Aristotle. Why did all these leaders succeed? It is because there were all followers of their leaders and learnt the ropes and evolved as leaders in their areas.
You frequently hear about leadership. But hearing about followership appears to be strange, right? Followership helps in getting into the shoes of others and empathizing with others thus excelling as a leader. If you want to become a leader you must first know about followership.
Characteristics of Followers:
“Follower’ is not a term of weakness, but the condition that permits leadership to exist and gives it strength.” - Ira Chaleff
• Good followers never blame their bosses. They rarely blame their tools for non-performance. That doesn’t mean that they are ‘yes men’. They sort out privately whatever the differences and issues they have with their leaders.
• They never surprise their bosses. They keep them informed about the developments and the action taken. They continuously report with feedback and seek for directions and solutions.
• They don’t bother who receives credit for the good work done.
• They take initiative and fix the problems without blaming others.
• Humility is their hallmark.
• They are quiet doers and don’t make any noise about their achievements.
• They are passionate to learn and grow and are always eager to learn the ropes.
• They listen carefully and observe keenly.
In deference organizations, subordinates follow the orders of their superiors who in turn set examples to their followers and excelling as true leaders. However, we find few people in organizations who often blame their bosses and their organizations for all their problems. They rarely introspect and empathize. They prefer to criticize, condemn and complain against others. Such people cannot excel as good followers.
Followership and Leadership:
“The ultimate leader is one who is willing to develop people to the point that they eventually surpass him or her in knowledge and ability.” - Fred A. Manske, Jr.
It is unfair to assume followers as weak individuals. They follow their leaders because of the values and ethics of leaders. They support because they are moved by the goals and objectives. It is also equally unfair to think that leaders are puppeteers and followers are puppets. In many cases leaders are also followers as they act as per the wishes of their followers. Followership is a relationship with reciprocal response from their leaders towards the goals. Both leadership and followership are inseparable. Once the goals are reached then the leadership separates with followership where followers carry certain takeaways to try and test as leaders.
As men appreciate women the leaders appreciate their followers. However, the appreciation between the leaders and followers is that of values and principles and goals and objectives.
Conclusion:
"The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on." - Walter Lippmann
Followers are more loyal to their leaders than the leaders being loyal to their followers. In the history of mankind we rarely see followers letting down their leaders. However, we find a few leaders letting down their followers and falling into the dustbins of history.
To sum up, behind the success of all leaders there must be someone who laid the leadership ladder for success when they remained as good followers. Only good followers can excel as good leaders as they inculcate the qualities of leadership from their leaders.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
How to Improve Your Soft Skills? - Prof.M.S.Rao
“You don’t have to be great to get started but you have to get started to be great.” – Les Brown
A few people think that soft skills are inborn, not cultivated. It is a myth indeed. Soft skills are basically behavioral skills that you can hone by continuous reading, observation, training, practice and experience. What is needed is the acquisition of training from professional soft skills trainers. You can learn anything and everything when you are passionate. So is the case with soft skills as well.
You can acquire soft skills by involving in group activities. In addition, you need to read various books related to communication skills, leadership, team building and networking skills. These serve as basic inputs and guidelines to master soft skills. Thus reading several books along with successful involvement will help you to learn these skills. Let us look at the six fold process of acquiring soft skills.
Find out your strengths and weaknesses. Focus more on your weak areas for improvement.
Observe people closely and keenly i.e. the way people talk with others especially their approach, body language and the physical distance between them during conversation. Observation is the key to enhancing soft skills.
Create network of friends and practice soft skills. As you cannot learn swimming by mere reading books, you cannot master soft skills by reading books alone. Therefore, you need to involve yourself actively with an attitude to hone your soft skills.
Join clubs and associations where you can interact with people of same area of interest. By continuous interaction you get motivated to improve.
Attend workshops and programs related to soft skills training as it a quick way to acquire soft skills. The activities conducted by professional trainers and the information given by them are beneficial to bring out behavioral changes within you.
Finally take feedback. Continuous feedback is essential to track the status of your takeaways. Find out the weak areas where you failed and try to overcome by further involvement, interaction and practice.
Unveiled below are few more detailed ways of improving your soft skills:
You need to listen attentively and actively with positive body language by nodding your head wherever required during conversation. Katherine Spencer Lee, executive director of Robert Half Technology says, “Active listening involves focusing on the moment, participating in the conversation, waiting your turn to speak, and asking for clarification when necessary.”
Always learn to empathize with others. When you empathize issues from others’ perspective almost half of the issues will be resolved automatically. It also builds bridges among the people. When in doubt, seek for clarifications and move on to conversation. Appreciate the feelings and emotions of other person by paraphrasing and repeating conversational content. It easily connects you with other person thus building a good rapport.
Avoid usage of jargon when you talk to a common person. Jargon alienates and eliminates your communication. Everybody is not expected to know the jargon of a particular sector or industry. Make your language simple, straight and neutral and free from jargon to get across the message. During conservation always look for a common ground with similar areas of interest.
Learn to lead from front. You need to walk the talk to improve your soft skills. Involvement is essential for improvement.
Keep good anecdotes and small stories in your kit. During conversation, use the same appropriately to connect with others quickly. It not only builds rapport with others but also makes you as a leader.
Learn to appreciate the disagreements among the individuals and build consensus before making any decision. Whenever there is any conflict, listen to all parties without any prejudices and arrive at the solutions amicably.
Always look at the commonalities, but not differences among the people.
Always remain cool, composed and collected during crisis. Don’t be in haste in making decisions. Look at the pros and cons and then make the decisions accordingly.
Above all, maintain ethics as these things will last forever. At times, short term gains look lucrative but will have long term negative implications and complications. When you maintain integrity and honesty, you stand tall forever.
Conclusion:
There is no short cut to mastering, learning or improving soft skills. It requires continuous practice, learning, observation, training and experience.
You need to sharpen the saw on regular basis to remain productive and competitive in this century. The world is changing at a mind boggling pace due to rapid growth in technology. It is difficult to predict where the technology would take us to the next level. It all leads to uncertainty and complexity. Therefore, mastering soft skills help you a lot in tackling several challenges and staying you ahead of others.
A few people think that soft skills are inborn, not cultivated. It is a myth indeed. Soft skills are basically behavioral skills that you can hone by continuous reading, observation, training, practice and experience. What is needed is the acquisition of training from professional soft skills trainers. You can learn anything and everything when you are passionate. So is the case with soft skills as well.
You can acquire soft skills by involving in group activities. In addition, you need to read various books related to communication skills, leadership, team building and networking skills. These serve as basic inputs and guidelines to master soft skills. Thus reading several books along with successful involvement will help you to learn these skills. Let us look at the six fold process of acquiring soft skills.
Find out your strengths and weaknesses. Focus more on your weak areas for improvement.
Observe people closely and keenly i.e. the way people talk with others especially their approach, body language and the physical distance between them during conversation. Observation is the key to enhancing soft skills.
Create network of friends and practice soft skills. As you cannot learn swimming by mere reading books, you cannot master soft skills by reading books alone. Therefore, you need to involve yourself actively with an attitude to hone your soft skills.
Join clubs and associations where you can interact with people of same area of interest. By continuous interaction you get motivated to improve.
Attend workshops and programs related to soft skills training as it a quick way to acquire soft skills. The activities conducted by professional trainers and the information given by them are beneficial to bring out behavioral changes within you.
Finally take feedback. Continuous feedback is essential to track the status of your takeaways. Find out the weak areas where you failed and try to overcome by further involvement, interaction and practice.
Unveiled below are few more detailed ways of improving your soft skills:
You need to listen attentively and actively with positive body language by nodding your head wherever required during conversation. Katherine Spencer Lee, executive director of Robert Half Technology says, “Active listening involves focusing on the moment, participating in the conversation, waiting your turn to speak, and asking for clarification when necessary.”
Always learn to empathize with others. When you empathize issues from others’ perspective almost half of the issues will be resolved automatically. It also builds bridges among the people. When in doubt, seek for clarifications and move on to conversation. Appreciate the feelings and emotions of other person by paraphrasing and repeating conversational content. It easily connects you with other person thus building a good rapport.
Avoid usage of jargon when you talk to a common person. Jargon alienates and eliminates your communication. Everybody is not expected to know the jargon of a particular sector or industry. Make your language simple, straight and neutral and free from jargon to get across the message. During conservation always look for a common ground with similar areas of interest.
Learn to lead from front. You need to walk the talk to improve your soft skills. Involvement is essential for improvement.
Keep good anecdotes and small stories in your kit. During conversation, use the same appropriately to connect with others quickly. It not only builds rapport with others but also makes you as a leader.
Learn to appreciate the disagreements among the individuals and build consensus before making any decision. Whenever there is any conflict, listen to all parties without any prejudices and arrive at the solutions amicably.
Always look at the commonalities, but not differences among the people.
Always remain cool, composed and collected during crisis. Don’t be in haste in making decisions. Look at the pros and cons and then make the decisions accordingly.
Above all, maintain ethics as these things will last forever. At times, short term gains look lucrative but will have long term negative implications and complications. When you maintain integrity and honesty, you stand tall forever.
Conclusion:
There is no short cut to mastering, learning or improving soft skills. It requires continuous practice, learning, observation, training and experience.
You need to sharpen the saw on regular basis to remain productive and competitive in this century. The world is changing at a mind boggling pace due to rapid growth in technology. It is difficult to predict where the technology would take us to the next level. It all leads to uncertainty and complexity. Therefore, mastering soft skills help you a lot in tackling several challenges and staying you ahead of others.
Soft Skills Training - Prof.M.S.Rao
Knowledge or skills that cannot be taught, although of course there is obvious evidence that it can be learned or acquired. It may therefore be regarded as "know-how", i.e. a "knack" for doing something. - (Atherton, 1999).
Soft skills training is far away from conventional methods of training where lot of interactive activities is conducted related to behaviour. The training helps in bringing out behavioral changes among the individuals. During this training, real life environment is created and participants are trained in a simulated environment through several role plays, activities, exercises and participation.
Objectives:
Soft Skills Training helps people develop competencies and capabilities. It develops and strengthens several work related skills making them competent and confident in handling tasks effectively and efficiently.
It brings out behavioral changes among the trainees so that they develop interpersonal, communication, team building skills and leadership skills. It helps them in enhancing productivity and performance at the workplace. In case of students, the training helps them to acquire employability skills so that they can get employment easily.
Training Methodology:
The process of training program involves several role plays, group activities, exercises, management techniques and feedback and Kirkpatrick’s concept of evaluation for takeaways. The process depends on the profile and the requirement of audiences. It is essential to bring the participants out of their comfort zones through effective interaction and participation. The practical interaction helps the participants in energizing and activating themselves.
The training gets people thinking, gives the new abilities and capabilities and enhances their self-awareness and self-worth by discovering and developing. The trainers should develop their own tried and tested tools and techniques drawn from their industry or corporate experience. The training methodology should be based on experiential learning where a facilitating learning environment should be created for better takeaways.
The training methodology must include interactive sessions, role-plays, games, practical exercises, questionnaires and giving feedback. In addition, the training sessions must include psychometric tests that give insights and ideas to the learners on the areas to be developed.
An ideal one week Soft Skills workshop for students should contain below topics:
• What are soft skills and its importance
• Understanding communication
• Body language
• Active listening
• Socializing and interaction
• Hidden data of communication
• Team building skills and stages in formation of teams
• Role plays and activities for team building
• Group discussions
• Interview skills
• Decision making
• Presentation skills with exercises
• Corporate etiquette
• Business ethics
• Mentoring, coaching and counseling
• Takeaways
An ideal Soft Skills workshop for working employees should have the below items:
• Communications Skills
• Assertive Skills
• Behavior Management or Interpersonal Skills
• Emotional Intelligence
• Personality Development
• Managerial Skills
• Time Management
• Stress Management
• Business Etiquettes
• Team Building
• Leadership
• Mentoring
• Managerial/Supervisory Skills
• Conflict Management
• Email/Telephone Etiquette
• Negotiating Skills
• Creative Thinking
• Networking Skills,
• Business Communication
• Entrepreneurial Skills
• Feedback and Takeaways
The above content is only tentative and it depends on the level of management and also the experience of executives. In fact, any training program needs to be tailored and customized as per the needs and profile of audiences.
Role of Soft Skills Trainers:
The trainers should be specialized in assessing training needs, designing, developing, delivering, administering and even evaluating corporate training solutions. It is essential to blend technology with traditional methods, problem solving tools and techniques, communication skills, promotional skills through practical training.
The essential characteristics to become trainers are:
Communication skills, domain knowledge, handling the questions, ability to align the answers of the participants in tune with the standard responses. Besides,
• Confidence
• Facing huge crowd
• Presence of mind
• Tact
• Pleasing personality
• High energy levels
• Industry experience
• Cheerfulness
• Analytical, incisive, logical, and sound observation
• Jack-of-all-trades and master of a particular domain and above all
• Passion to share experience and expertise with others.
The trainers should be able to observe and correctly interpret what is happening before, during and after the training. They should be imaginative and must surely possess the ability to think on the feet and tackle situations. They must have the ability to encourage others to go beyond their current level of performance. To achieve this, the trainers should be willing to share experiences and expertise and invest time for the sake of others and the organization. They must strongly believe that people are capable of higher performance. They should enjoy working with people rather than expecting to take credit for improvements in others.
Conclusion:
Soft Skills training has to be made compulsory in every educational institution from degree level onwards to equip employability skills when they complete their academic curriculum. The industry should also provide this training program from time to time enhance effectiveness of their employees. To sum up, everyone should know that like learning, training is also a life-long process for bringing all round development for individuals and institutions.
Soft skills training is far away from conventional methods of training where lot of interactive activities is conducted related to behaviour. The training helps in bringing out behavioral changes among the individuals. During this training, real life environment is created and participants are trained in a simulated environment through several role plays, activities, exercises and participation.
Objectives:
Soft Skills Training helps people develop competencies and capabilities. It develops and strengthens several work related skills making them competent and confident in handling tasks effectively and efficiently.
It brings out behavioral changes among the trainees so that they develop interpersonal, communication, team building skills and leadership skills. It helps them in enhancing productivity and performance at the workplace. In case of students, the training helps them to acquire employability skills so that they can get employment easily.
Training Methodology:
The process of training program involves several role plays, group activities, exercises, management techniques and feedback and Kirkpatrick’s concept of evaluation for takeaways. The process depends on the profile and the requirement of audiences. It is essential to bring the participants out of their comfort zones through effective interaction and participation. The practical interaction helps the participants in energizing and activating themselves.
The training gets people thinking, gives the new abilities and capabilities and enhances their self-awareness and self-worth by discovering and developing. The trainers should develop their own tried and tested tools and techniques drawn from their industry or corporate experience. The training methodology should be based on experiential learning where a facilitating learning environment should be created for better takeaways.
The training methodology must include interactive sessions, role-plays, games, practical exercises, questionnaires and giving feedback. In addition, the training sessions must include psychometric tests that give insights and ideas to the learners on the areas to be developed.
An ideal one week Soft Skills workshop for students should contain below topics:
• What are soft skills and its importance
• Understanding communication
• Body language
• Active listening
• Socializing and interaction
• Hidden data of communication
• Team building skills and stages in formation of teams
• Role plays and activities for team building
• Group discussions
• Interview skills
• Decision making
• Presentation skills with exercises
• Corporate etiquette
• Business ethics
• Mentoring, coaching and counseling
• Takeaways
An ideal Soft Skills workshop for working employees should have the below items:
• Communications Skills
• Assertive Skills
• Behavior Management or Interpersonal Skills
• Emotional Intelligence
• Personality Development
• Managerial Skills
• Time Management
• Stress Management
• Business Etiquettes
• Team Building
• Leadership
• Mentoring
• Managerial/Supervisory Skills
• Conflict Management
• Email/Telephone Etiquette
• Negotiating Skills
• Creative Thinking
• Networking Skills,
• Business Communication
• Entrepreneurial Skills
• Feedback and Takeaways
The above content is only tentative and it depends on the level of management and also the experience of executives. In fact, any training program needs to be tailored and customized as per the needs and profile of audiences.
Role of Soft Skills Trainers:
The trainers should be specialized in assessing training needs, designing, developing, delivering, administering and even evaluating corporate training solutions. It is essential to blend technology with traditional methods, problem solving tools and techniques, communication skills, promotional skills through practical training.
The essential characteristics to become trainers are:
Communication skills, domain knowledge, handling the questions, ability to align the answers of the participants in tune with the standard responses. Besides,
• Confidence
• Facing huge crowd
• Presence of mind
• Tact
• Pleasing personality
• High energy levels
• Industry experience
• Cheerfulness
• Analytical, incisive, logical, and sound observation
• Jack-of-all-trades and master of a particular domain and above all
• Passion to share experience and expertise with others.
The trainers should be able to observe and correctly interpret what is happening before, during and after the training. They should be imaginative and must surely possess the ability to think on the feet and tackle situations. They must have the ability to encourage others to go beyond their current level of performance. To achieve this, the trainers should be willing to share experiences and expertise and invest time for the sake of others and the organization. They must strongly believe that people are capable of higher performance. They should enjoy working with people rather than expecting to take credit for improvements in others.
Conclusion:
Soft Skills training has to be made compulsory in every educational institution from degree level onwards to equip employability skills when they complete their academic curriculum. The industry should also provide this training program from time to time enhance effectiveness of their employees. To sum up, everyone should know that like learning, training is also a life-long process for bringing all round development for individuals and institutions.
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